Last night, 7:00 pm, my driveway alarm kept going off. Then on go the lights down back and side. Looked, saw nothing. Waited. Alarms, lights and THEN....saw a MAN (transient), tall, baseball cap, all dirty brown clothes, shuffling out of my driveway and into neighbor next door's driveway. Watched him, he came right back UP my driveway. Saw he was carrying a white plastic grocery bag in one hand and a can of PAINT in the other. Had no idea what he was up to. Graffitti? Huffing? He left my driveway after going 1/2 way down to my first tenant's house and shuffled across the street. Went down 2 houses, stopped, turned around, came back, went across again, and then left Eastbound up the opposite sidewalk. I watched him until he passed the next street and was out of sight. Thought I was home free.

15 minutes later, I hear driveway alarms again. Looked out and he was shuffling down my driveway. I went to front porch, yelled, "do you need any help?" and he just ignored me totally. He went down driveway so I raced to back gate and he was now shuffling towards the street again. Yelled did he need some assistance?, is he lost? Can I do anything for you? AND again, the ZOMBIE just kept shuffling.

Then he went up the street, disappeared and THEN I heard driveway alarms, saw lights, went out back and nothing. Got my flashlight, walked down driveway towards tenants' houses and THERE he was, curled up fetal position, clutching his paint and bag, right between my tenant's car and their back door, sleeping I think!

I backed away, called police, called neighbor lady, called both tenants (no easy feat since one is limited English speaker and the other only has a cell number which is long distance for me). Cautioned them NOT to go outside and make sure doors are secure.

Took 40 minutes for police to arrive. Flagged down the first of 3 cars who was spotlighting the houses and told him that the guy, (who had now awakened and left) was shuffling up the street just where they had passed. He turned around, all 3 cars stopped in the middle of the street and I think they got him 4 doors up. He was lying or sitting on the sidewalk when I looked up the street. They all stayed there another 15-20 minutes and then everyone left. Have no idea if they took him or left him or made him go away or what. They never let you know. In any case, scared silly of what he might be up to.

Called tenants to let them know it's all clear and asked if one could go out by his car and check for any left items. He called back said nothing there. I walked down to back tenant to advise all clear (didn't want to pay for another toll charge) and spotlighted the 'sleeping area' and found a 1/3 full bottle of Vodka! Dunno how tenant missed it, (actually I do, sigh) but I took them the bottle for recycling and advised to be careful since he might sober up and return to look for it.

Now I'm on high alert for this guy. Hope he never comes back here and if he does, I'm calling police with more of an URGENT tone of voice. I'm almost positive he's one of the transients I always see in the park up the street. Woe is me. Dunno if he was just drunk, or stoned on the paint fumes and harmless, or was carrying a weapon (a lot of them carry knives for self protection) OR if he really was a ZOMBIE! Arrraaaghhhh!

Yeah, it's so exciting around here. What a thrill. Keeps me on my toes. Hope that guy doesn't ever come back. I really am expecting him to suddenly remember his vodka and wander back tonight looking for it. Ugh.

OH and yesterday, I got run into by a bicyclist! Was walking, not driving, with my friend on our morning walk. Got to a corner, and all of a sudden, I heard a look out! and then the bike hit the back of my leg, thankfully not hard. Was a gal with a huge bag of cans for recycling and she couldn't make the corner and hit me. Neither of us was hurt, and the cans survived. Could have been very bad but it wasn't. Not even a full moon, what's going on?